In the competitive world of institutional commercial real estate, REItrades is introducing new solutions to address the longstanding challenge of brokerage dependency in large transactions. In a recent interview, Artur Muller, Founder and CEO of REItrades, discussed the company’s distinct approach to overcoming these industry obstacles.
“From a seller standpoint, they basically had, they were pushed to only one option, and that was to sell through a broker if they were looking to maximize the sales price. Because the off market, you know, sale was kind of, it kind of provided limited exposure,” said Muller, who brings more than a decade of experience in commercial real estate and previously ran his own boutique brokerage.
Operating in the commercial real estate sector for three years, REItrades focuses on institutional transactions above $10 million, serving private equity funds, REITs, investment asset managers, and family offices.
Muller sees brokerage dependency as a significant barrier in today’s institutional commercial real estate market. “There was, there was no, and there is no other platforms that provided the ability for sellers to sell directly without selling a discount, in other words.”
This issue impacts both sellers and buyers by adding friction and costs to transactions that could be handled directly between sophisticated parties. Sellers face lengthy processes and high commissions, while institutional buyers often prefer direct deal structures but lack access to exclusive opportunities outside established brokerage channels.
Muller outlined the company’s strategy for overcoming current challenges in the commercial real estate space, emphasizing a targeted and efficiency-driven model. Through an exclusive network strategy, Retrace provides sellers with direct access to a curated pool of qualified buyers, eliminating the need for broad marketing campaigns and ensuring listings reach investors who can actually close on high-value assets.
The company’s institutional focus sets it apart, catering specifically to commercial investment firms, private equity funds, REITs, asset managers, and family offices. By facilitating direct principal-to-principal transactions, Retrace removes traditional brokerage layers, creating a more streamlined, transparent, and cost-efficient marketplace for large-scale real estate deals.
Muller pointed to the recent beta launch, which included over $120 million in exclusive listings, as an example of their model in action. The project validated the platform and showed strong demand for direct transactions.
“We did a beta soft launch where we didn’t want to open up the platform, you know, and not kind of have control of it. We wanted to kind of keep it small,” he explained.
The initiative led to rapid seller adoption and confirmed that institutional buyers prioritize exclusive access to direct deals rather than relying on traditional brokerage relationships.
REItrades’ solutions use AI-powered automation and integrated workflow management. “Our idea was to provide a platform that does everything automatically, that allows the seller to do everything on their own and build the marketing materials and connect directly with with buyers that are pre vetted,” Muller said.
The platform incorporates AI content generation, e-signature capabilities, automated buyer matching based on acquisition criteria, and due diligence tracking tools.
For others navigating similar challenges in the commercial real estate sector, Muller shared practical advice. “When you’re talking about institutional level buyers, it’s a very small niche, in other words, and when it comes to how brokers market these large assets, majority of the time they actually do not publicly market them. So a lot of times, these brokers will market these large assets to their own private network of buyers.”
Recognizing this reality allows sophisticated market participants to see that direct platforms can provide comparable or better market exposure while removing intermediary costs and delays.
Looking ahead, Muller said that REItrades plans to leverage ongoing industry digitization driven by current market conditions.
“I think that there’s a lot of especially in this space, there’s a lot of institutional capital being invested in these funds, which is putting a lot of pressure on them, especially when you’re talking rates being so high for good amount of time now, to the extent that they kind of have to look for new alternatives to save the money and optimize,” he said.
With these trends accelerating, REItrades aims to offer institutional sellers and buyers new, streamlined pathways for commercial real estate transactions, reducing reliance on brokers and increasing efficiency across the sector.
